Only Three of the Seven Deadly Sins
Getting an earlier start Saturday morning, I came across more "working" cabs than I have seen in weeks, cavorting it appeared between downtown and Pier 91, the Port of Seattle cruise ship terminal, ever so happy that two imaginary taxi Golden Geese were floating mere feet from each other, each disembarking passenger a potential fare to the moon. Like taxi mayflies, there they were and then instantly they were gone, the later afternoon and evening hours left bereft of cabs, leaving it to me and a handful of other cabbies to service the tsunami of fares overwhelming the city and county, wave after wave inundating Yellow's BID screen and hotels and downtown streets.
Not pleased but finding the taxi miscreants guilty of only three of the worst of the seven deadly sins---greed for their preference only working when its fat; sloth, because they are lazy as hell; and wrath because they could care "a rat's ass" about all those customers waiting deep into night for the never arriving cab. And giving their collective sins a Roman Catholic definition---Cardinal they are, Crimson and Red upon the taxi day and night---Satan smiling a knowing grin, the bad cabbies punching empathy in the chin, knocking taxi for the proverbial loop, down we go, stiff and prone unconscious upon the asphalt street.
Where was the customer waiting?
Comical, the message on my screen stating that the passenger was waiting "round the boat" when instead it was the "roundabout." Yellow's dispatch is now internally nautical, water upon the taxi brain. And oh, by the way, it was another no-show.
General Motors Cruise Driverless Taxis
Is science fiction coming to San Francisco? Possibly, as the California Public Utilities Commission is considering GM's application to begin daily operation of driverless cabs. Crazy but true but there is something helpful you can do: comment. You have until June 5th, 2022.
Call 866-849-8390
public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov.
CPUC Public Advisor's Office, 505 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
How does this apply to you? Because your city could be next.
Tragic Stories
The woman from Florida was in Renton visiting her now severely injured son who was struck by an uninsured driver in Tacoma last October. Unrepairable brain injuries and multiple right side fractures means he will never walk or function normally again. What are the local authorities doing to the driver: nothing.
Picking up a woman at Harborview Hospital, she said her husband was just reaching for something when he heard a pop go off in his body. Soon thereafter, as he began losing sensation in his body, he was medevaced to Seattle, suddenly near death. The verdict: a severed spinal cord. Alive but now paraplegic.
It Might not be Mere Fantasy
Possibly coming the Seattle cab driver's way will be an app dispatch system called Netcar. It might be true and it might be nationwide. Stay tuned.
Good! Then all street fares will be like the Argent song, Hold your hand up, hold your hand up! A hybrid between the taxi hail, yet while holding phone! Killing Rideshare
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